Can I install Windows 7 on a laptop with 192Mb RAM?

Draeger · 22 Feb 2012 at 13:12

As above really, a Packard Bell F7 series laptop with a P4 3.06 Ghz CPU and 192Mb RAM. Currently running XP SP3 on it.

Will W7 even install or will it throw a wobbly during setup and point blank refuse to go any further when it realises the amount of RAM on the system is as low?.

If it will install, do you reckon it will run reasonably enough to do basic day to day stuff like Word, surf the web etc?. I seem to recall installing W7 on an Asus Eee netbook a while ago and it ran pretty well but I can't remember how much RAM that was running.

BluSky · 22 Feb 2012 at 13:13

windows 7 technically needs 1GB of RAM to run, though will still run very well on 512MB, anything less than that though, and I would have to say no. Sorry

P3N9U1N · 22 Feb 2012 at 13:13

you need to look at this:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/system-requirements

not looking good

BluSky · 22 Feb 2012 at 13:15

Forgot to ask, is your Ram upgradeable at all? If you can get it up to 512 or even 1GB (depending on your board's max) then it would become much more doable. At that point then yes for office related tasks I would have to say it would be... slow... but good to go in general

JimAroo · 22 Feb 2012 at 13:23

No chance.

PermaBanned · 22 Feb 2012 at 13:33

Nope. Use Linux. Plenty of distros will run with that and are much more up to date than XP. But don't expect to be doing anything other than browsing (not with dozens of tabs), playing music and text editing. You might have a look at some of these:

http://peppermintos.com/
http://www.slitaz.org/en/
http://puppylinux.org/
http://macpup.org/
http://crunchbanglinux.org/
http://lubuntu.net/

Mattus · 22 Feb 2012 at 13:33

I would stick to XP on that system. I don't know if 7 would install, but if it did it would be unusable.

Number_25 · 22 Feb 2012 at 13:34

Why not put lubuntu on it?

Or just install more RAM?

Draeger · 22 Feb 2012 at 13:39

Cheers guys, I think I'll just stick with XP on it then. It's not my laptop, it belongs to a friend who has bought a new laptop and was going to give this to his father to do basic stuff like browse the net with etc. I just did a factory restore, uninstalled a load of superfluous rubbish off it and dropped Avast AV on there for him. Was just wondering if it would be worth trying to bring the OS up to date but on second thoughts, I'll pass.

CaptainCrash · 23 Feb 2012 at 00:35

Even XP will be a miserable struggle with so little RAM, with the pain compounded by swapping almost continuously to (presumably) an old and slow hard drive.

A bit of google-fu suggests that it takes a single PC2700 (333MHz) memory stick (a regular 184-pin DDR1 DIMM, not a SODIMM), with a maximum size of 512MB. Not sure how you arrive at a capacity of 192MB, which would suggest two modules of 128MB and 64MB - this disassembly manual refers to "Removing the Memory Module" (singular), with accompanying pictures.

You can get a 512MB stick of PC2700 DDR1 from a well-known auction site for a tenner or less, which might be a worthwhile investment... failing that, if I were you I'd give one of the ultra-lightweight Linux distros mentioned above a go, and if that doesn't work out for whatever reason, drop it in the nearest skip.

Mattus · 23 Feb 2012 at 00:56

I too would chuck a 512MB stick in it. There's no computing experience more frustrating than using a machine with a serious shortage of RAM; much more annoying than an underpowered CPU, IMO. It'll be a different machine with 512MB.

Tee Hee Johnson · 23 Feb 2012 at 01:04

CaptainCrash said:
Not sure how you arrive at a capacity of 192MB, which would suggest two modules of 128MB and 64MB

Just a micro thought, could have 256MB with shared graphics of 64MB, giving the 192MB figure

CaptainCrash · 23 Feb 2012 at 01:29

craig_kennedy83 said:
Just a micro thought, could have 256MB with shared graphics of 64MB, giving the 192MB figure

Ah yes, that would make sense. The obvious explanation completely escaped me.

3dcandy · 23 Feb 2012 at 02:13

in this case I'd change the shared memory size to claw a bit of ram back...if you could set it to 16 meg I bet it would run faster! Have a play though, 64meg is too high with limited ram. As said, if you could source a 512 meg dimm things would be so so much better

bledd · 23 Feb 2012 at 11:04

Wouldn't even use XP on less that 256.

Vista/7 need 2gb to run well. 1gb to run 'ok'

Draeger · 23 Feb 2012 at 16:05

craig_kennedy83 said:
Just a micro thought, could have 256MB with shared graphics of 64MB, giving the 192MB figure

That would make sense, yeah. I had a look and it is indeed a 256Mb stick in there. I've added another 512Mb that I had lying around gathering dust and it's made a fair bit of difference compared to the 256Mb treacle-fest.